Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, makes rare public appearance at gala banquet to celebrate nuclear tests

Kim Jong-un’s wife has made a rare public appearance alongside the North Korean leader at a celebration of the pariah state’s advancing nuclear capabilities.

Ri Sol-ju was photographed at a gala banquet for the engineers who conducted country’s most powerful nuclear test to date last Sunday. The celebration is believed to have taken play at the People's Theatre in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The dictator’s wife has barely been seen in public in recent years, prompting speculation she may have given birth to the couple’s third child recently.



Kim, 33, broke with tradition when he was first appeared in public with Ri in 2012 and since then North Korean media has referred to her has his wife. Neither Mr Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, nor father, Kim Jong-il, were ever photographed with their wives or partners in public.

Ri and Kim are reported to have met around 2010 when she was a member of the country’s Unhasu orchestra. The 27-year-old First Lady of the impoverished state is said to have a penchant for luxury goods and was seeen in 2012 with a Dior handbag reportedly worth over £1,000.



The couple has two children, whose genders are unknown. It is unusual for North Koreans to have more than two children, but Kim may have felt pressure to have a third if the first two were girls.

Pictures released by state-run newswire KCNA showed rows of uniformed officials clapping in delight at their nation's progress in developing a weapon of mass destruction.